


Cold

by goopeculiar



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-15
Updated: 2018-07-15
Packaged: 2019-06-11 02:06:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,201
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15305055
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/goopeculiar/pseuds/goopeculiar
Summary: Who even gets a cold in the middle of summer?





	Cold

“Who the fuck even gets a cold in the middle of fucking summer?” Jongdae whines miserably. He’s curled up on one end of his couch, wrapped up in upwards of twelve blankets even though it’s absolutely sweltering outside, and he’s fully convinced this will be the end of him.

On the other end of the couch, as far from Jongdae as possible, sits Joonmyun, who frowns at Jongdae’s foul language. At least that’s what Jongdae thinks he’s doing. All he can see of Joonmyun’s face is his eyes, everything else is covered by a mask in an attempt to keep away The Germs. Joonmyun’s immune system has always been notoriously shoddy. “Someone who runs on four hours of sleep a night, substitutes meals with coffee and considers pizza a vegetable.”

“Okay, I’m too sick to come up with a proper snarky comeback right now, but know that I resent everything you just said.” Joonmyun rolls his eyes.  _T_ _hat_ Jongdae can see.

Reaching into his canvas tote bag – because he is a Responsible Human Being who’s conscious of recycling and cares about the environment and stuff – Joonmyun pulls out a styrofoam bowl of soup covered in foil. “Here. This actually has  _real_ vegetables in it. And nutrition.”

“Blasphemous,” Jongdae hisses, outraged.

“I know, foreign concept.” Joonmyun pulls off the foil to release tendrils of steam, and Jongdae has to admit that it does smell pretty good. He is nothing if not stubborn, though, so he turns his nose up at it. Joonmyun looks very unimpressed. “Stop being so fussy and eat your soup like a big boy.”

Jongdae pouts. “Then feed me,” he demands, sniffling for effect, and Joonmyun rolls his eyes again, but sticks his hand into the tote bag again and comes back out holding an extendable spoon, which tells Jongdae two things he probably already knew. One: Joonmyun is a whole ass nerd. Two: he knows Jongdae far too well, seeing as he had seemingly already assumed that Jongdae would ask to be fed. Has he become too predictable?

“I need to leave soon, though. Lunch is only forty-five minutes.” Joonmyun somehow manages to wield the oversized utensil without spilling any soup at all between the bowl and Jongdae’s mouth. A remarkable feat, truly. He probably spent a large number of his solitary Friday nights practicing with the thing. In Jongdae’s eyes, Joonmyun is just one fuzzy feline friend away from ending his days as the rare breed that is a  _male_  crazy cat lady.

Aaand the soup is actually really good. Curses. Jongdae hates when Joonmyun is right about nutritional value. “Thank you for wasting your time on me. You’re a true pal.” A wild compliment appeared. Compliment used distract. It’s super effective!

Joonmyun hums. He’s very much focused on steering the spoon towards the right facial orifice, brow furrowed cutely over his face mask. “A true Mom Friend,” he says and makes airplane sounds to convince Jongdae to open his mouth. Jongdae huffs and nearly splatters soup all over himself.

“At least you’re self-aware,” he mumbles around a mouthful of chicken and something that is possibly this carrot thing Jongdae remembers having heard of before. Joonmyun coos and praises him for eating so well, and Jongdae would kick him, but then he’d have to stick a body part out of his blanket cocoon, and he’s just so damn comfortable right now. He wiggles to sink a little deeper into the couch. “Honestly, you’re more like a Daddy, though.”

The elongated spoon falters in its path and droops sadly to dispense its load onto one of Jongdae’s one dozen blankets. Joonmyun’s eyebrows are nearly crawling off his face with how high they’ve shot up. Jongdae, mortified, wants to die a little more than he already did. “Excuse me?”

“Hah. Y-you know, like… daddy-o. Hah hahhh.” Jongdae does finger guns. His hands aren’t even visible, his entire body is swathed in blankets. It is futile. He could roll off the couch and scamper off like a panicked caterpillar, but then he would have to drop down onto the mountain of tissues that has accumulated by his side throughout the day, and he’s just not about that snot-soaked life. This means that the only option is to confront the problem head on. Fuck. That is literally his least favorite option. Under the current circumstances, he doesn’t have the mental wherewithal to Deal With It. “Uhhh, ignore me. Hah. That’s just the cold medicine talking. Haha.”

During Jongdae’s entire Inner Debate Debacle, Joonmyun has picked the extendable spoon back up and calmly resumed feeding him the rest of the soup. “You didn’t take any medicine. I made you wait until after you’d had something to eat. Remember?” Damn. Foiled again.

Jongdae sits up straighter. The conversation they’re about to have seems like a ‘sitting up, pants on’ kind of conversation. He doesn’t know where his pants are. Okay, scratch the pants. “Listen,” he says, leaning closer even as Joonmyun leans back to avoid The Germs. “I get the urge to kiss you more often than someone should normally get the urge to kiss their friend. You feel me?” He kind of wishes he had the full use of his hands right now instead of being stuck as some weird blob creature with just a face. Three parts blanket, one part human, all sniveling mess.

For a moment, Joonmyun is quiet. Then he pulls down his mask so his entire face is visible – he, too, seems to understand that this is Serious Business (he’s even wearing pants!). “Well,” he says. “If you weren’t sick right now, I’d very much like to kiss you back.”

“Really?” Jongdae wheezes. His chest hurts. Is that because of his cold or because his heart is pounding so hard?

Joonmyun smiles, and Jongdae now knows that the aforementioned chest pain is primarily heart palpitation-based. “Definitely. Do you think I’d spend my lunch break getting soup and medicine for just any one of my friends?”

“Knowing you, yes.”

“Okay, you’re probably right,” Joonmyun relents. He boldly reaches out to brush Jongdae’s greasy, sweat-matted hair off his forehead, smiling fondly.

Jongdae had expected to live with his unrequited crush in secret for a very long time, perhaps forever, but even so, he had had the typical, embarrassingly romantic ideas of how his confession would go. He imagined it would involve fancy clothes and luxurious food and maybe a string quartet. It would not involve Jongdae being snotty and sneezy, styrofoam soup and Joonmyun’s phone going off. And yet he doesn’t think he would ever want anything other than this. “Work?” he asks, inclining his head in the direction of Joonmyun’s chiming phone.

“I set an alarm for when I would have to leave to go back,” Joonmyun confirms. He doesn’t sound like he wants to. Jongdae doesn’t want him to, either, but he doesn’t stop Joonmyun from standing up and walking towards the front door. “I’ll come over later, and we can… talk? Okay?”

“Okay,” Jongdae agrees. He rests his chin on the back of the couch so he can watch Joonmyun bend over to pick up his shoes. Jongdae can’t wait until he gets over this cold.

**Author's Note:**

> inspired by me getting sick literally on the first day of my summer break, good times :)))))
> 
> (cross-posted from my tumblr because I ain't mad at this)


End file.
